Below are 20 journal entries, after skipping by the 20 most recent ones recorded in Michelle's Blurty:

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Sunday, October 24th, 2004
6:58 pm	Dude, you’re getting a Dell! That’s right, my blurty reading fans. I am the proud new owner of a Dell laptop. I love it! I admit, it is making me a bit of a hermit, keeping me hiding back in my bedroom and tying up the phone line, but I DO NOT CARE! I love it, it’s my favorite new toy, and it’s mine all mine! Okay, insane laptop exultation over… Other than getting my laptop, I haven’t had anything really exciting happen lately. I got my Halloween costume, which (thankfully) fits, but is a little uncomfortably revealing of my, um, bulges in places. Tomorrow, I will go out in search of that dreaded female apparel apparatus, the girdle. That’s right, the gut holding in, tummy slimming girdle. I fear that the purchase of such an undergarment means that I really am turning into my grandmother. My mom and I went out shopping today. On our way to the store, we were talking about a bunch of stuff in the car. Well, I don’t know why, but the subject of internet friends came up, and I instantly thought of all my wonderful friends, in particular, Maria. I told my mom ‘You know, she is one of the most mature people I know. She’s more mature than half the people my age. And she’s heads and shoulders above all the guys her own age.’ So, yeah, shout-out to Maria, the kind of little sis I'd love to have. And just so I don't get anyone else mad at me, shout-outs to all my other internet peeps! You know who you are! So, nothing else is going on that is really interesting enough to talk about. I think I’ll end this entry here, and leave you all in anxious anticipation for the next insight into my world. Music Recommendations: John Mayer, As/Is Sorry, have to pimp my man. You’d have to order it online if you want it, and I believe it’s only available for a limited time. Here's the line to the Sony online music store: John Mayer, As/Is Jet: Get Born ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ is one of my favorite booty shaking songs. The whole album rocks. Current Mood: full (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 16th, 2004
12:17 am	Thank God it’s Friday… seriously. You know, this week wasn’t that bad at work. It was busy as hell, though, so I’m sure glad it’s over. I keep adding all these books to my ‘must read’ list. I swear that list just keeps getting longer, no matter how many books I read. Sometimes, I get kind of angry at the thought of all the books there are for me to read and that I will probably not have time for. Seriously, can’t all these authors just stop writing for a while so I can read the books and get caught up? I’m thinking the answer to that question is probably not. Um, what else? Maria and I had an awesome conversation in ATB tonight. She’s kind of in a funky mood, and I am totally sympathetic to that. I’ve felt like that all week… well, for way longer than that, really. We discussed boys and how they’re just so damned hard to understand. See, this is why I love Maria: she is so much younger than I am, but she is on my level in so many ways. Seriously, all us older people like to tell her how mature she is, but I really mean it. She is totally the kind of girl I’d love to have for my little sister. Her only fault is that she’s hotter than I am. ;o) My plans for this weekend are as follows: 1. Shopping for a Halloween costume… hopefully a beautiful and somewhat sexy costume. 2. Car ride with my mom to look at the fall colors and, hopefully, get some good pictures. I know, I know, you just wish you had as exciting a life as I do. Book Recommendations: Unfortunately, I have no book recommendations for you this time. Why? Because I’m still reading the same damned books as last time. I seriously need to read more often and/or faster. Music Recommendations: The Postal Service, Let Go Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 9th, 2004
9:54 pm	It’s a miracle! Another blurty entry? Within a week? I think the writer in me is just aching to get out. I must remember to express that side of me a little more. So, in the last entry, I talked about the Chicago-weekend/Matt Nathanson extravaganza. If you want to read Melanie’s tale of the weekend, proceed here http://www.blurty.com/users/auntiemel. I swear, it seems like forever since she was here, when it was just last weekend in reality. Time is strange that way. This past week has been pretty tame. I ended up using my one remaining personal day at work to take Friday off. Let’s just say that after having sort of a bad day on Thursday, I needed Friday off. Homicide might have been committed if I had to work on Friday. I’d planned to go shopping for a Halloween costume on Friday, but the weather was really gray and rainy. I ended up sleeping in and just being generally lazy the whole day. It was quite lovely. This weekend is sort of another busy one for me. I can’t wait to be done with all this planned stuff, so I can just go back to being lazy and relaxing on the weekend. Last night, I went and hung out with Kate from work. We just hung out and watched t.v. and ended up watching ‘Kill Bill, Vol. 2’. Let me say, I really loved ‘Kill Bill, vol.1’ and thought it was awesome, but vol. 2 leaves A LOT to be desired. To put it bluntly, it was boring as hell. Today, I was invited by our library director at work to attend the Franklin Park Woman’s Club fashion show. I’ve never been to anything like this, and the ticket was free, so I figured it would be fun. I took my mom along with me, and I think she enjoyed it as well. There were several different kinds of raffle tickets for sale, but we sadly didn’t win anything. The fashion show part was interesting, but the clothes were all expensive and from a store that doesn’t even have our sizes, so it was more just for us to admire than really be interested in buying. It was cool to be around people from work, outside of work, and just see how different and fun they are when they’re away from the stress of their jobs. Tomorrow, I’m marching in the Franklin Park Octoberfest parade, as part of the library group. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day, so it’ll be good exercise if nothing else. I think it’ll be fun, though. I love parades, and the last one I marched in was way back in grade school when I was in Brownies, so it’ll be interesting. Music Recommendations: Ryan Adams, Love is Hell, parts 1 and 2 I have loved Ryan Adams since his album ‘Gold’. I bought his albums ‘Demolition’ and ‘Rock ‘N Roll’ when they were released, but found them a little too loud for my taste. My ideal Ryan Adams album is a little softer, more melodic, more emotional, and a little melancholy. ‘Love is Hell’ is definitely my kind of album. Usher, Confessions I borrowed our new copy from the library. In fact, I think I am the first one to take it out. This is a good old (or, rather, new) R&B album infused with some dance and rap. I like Usher well enough, I’m not a huge fan or anything, but I found myself nodding my head and really getting into some of the songs on this album. I’ve heard that this album is mainly autobiographical in that Usher wrote most of the songs about himself, his relationships, his mistakes. I think that just makes the songs even better. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Neil Young, "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" (Comment on this)
Monday, October 4th, 2004
7:30 pm	Here at last, here at last, thank God almighty, Fall is here at last! Oh my goodness, so much to talk about since last time. Let’s begin with how much I am still in love with Ari Hest. It’s just not normal to love a singer/songwriter this much. And I know, I’m an expert on the unattainable celebrity crush! I have been listening to his album nearly nonstop since I saw him last month. And to follow such a wonderful show with another show by Marc Broussard, who gets my booty shaking and other parts of my anatomy tingly (don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about!) was just awesome. It’s an experience I’m still basking in, and talking about, ad nauseum, as some of you are too well aware of. ;o) Add to the above the fact that my friend Melanie D. from Cali was flying out to my ‘hood last weekend to visit me, oh and to see some guy named Matt Nathanson or something, too… damn, I’m just all aflutter. So, let’s talk about last weekend. It was an entertaining and, at times, surreal experience. First, Mel landed early on Saturday morning at O’Hare. Being the sweetheart she is, she mercifully hung out at the airport for a little while, getting a bite to eat, so I could get a little more sleep that morning. She called, I came to pick her up, and the party began. Now, when I say party, what I mean is two mid-20ish chicks hanging out and girl talking. Yeah, that’s right, that’s our idea of a party! You got a problem with it? We hung out, talked, shopped for some last minute things, I took her to my place of employment at her request (because, as she said, “When I said I wanted to see the sights, I meant the sights of your life.”). We were killing time in the afternoon until she could check in at her hotel. She ended up taking a nap, after having gone more than 24 hours without much sleep at all. So, what did I do? I took a nap, too, dammit! I have to support my friend in all her decisions because that’s just the caring kind of person I am. So, fast forward a few hours, and we were on our way on the Blue Line (for all of you non-Chicagoans, that’s the Chicago Transit Authority train that runs from the airport to downtown), headed down to the House of Blues. We stopped for a bite to eat after we got off the train, then headed over to the venue. It just so happened that the guy standing at the end of the line was a friend of Mel’s from a message board, Mark. So, we hung out with him. He seemed like a cool guy, a Matt superfan, if you will, who’d been following him across the country for a week. So, I got to hang out with him and Mel during the show, which was quite an experience. There’s nothing like being at a show in the company of people who know the artist much better than you can ever hope to, let me tell you. After the show, since Mark has kindly offered to drive us back to the train station to pick up my car, we take a hike through the city to find his rental. And when I say hike I mean hike. I think we walked almost the entire length of the Loop. Soon after we started our trek, I think it occurred to Mel and I that her friend Mark was a little loopy himself. I told him several times throughout that night and Sunday morning that I attributed it to the fact that he’d driven several thousands of miles over the past week and hadn’t had any real rest. So, we get in Mark’s car and being the suburbanite that I am, I have no idea how the hell to get back to the Kennedy expressway. Mark drives around, stopping several people to ask how we get back to 90/the Kennedy. Well, a few people tell us, but tell us wrong, so we end up on the freakin’ south side by the United Center. I tell him, “uh, Mark, we do not want to be in this neighborhood.” We’re stopped at a light, and he finally finds someone who can tell us the correct way to go to get back to the Kennedy expressway. While we’re driving, I call a friend of mine from work just to double-check, and she says that we want to be on 90 going west, which is indeed where we are heading. So, I think everything is fine. Well, Mark starts driving a little crazy, trying to mess with Melanie I am convinced. I’m in the backseat, not the death seat (a.k.a. shotgun), so I’m not too worried. Hard to believe, but I’ve been with several people who were much worse drivers than he was trying to be. I think at this point in our trip, Melanie’s live is flashing before her eyes. Thankfully, we make it back to the train station alive. I pick up my car and we drive back to my house so I can pick up my clothes and stuff (ie. booze) and then drive over to the hotel. Now, we are hungry, and there’s a Denny’s right by the hotel, so we head over there only to find that it’s closed for remodeling or something. It’s about 1 a.m., which is late, but this is freaking Chicagoland, for God’s sake! There’s got to be somewhere open! Well, we had a hell of a time finding somewhere, but ended up way the hell over by my neighborhood again, at a different Denny’s. We eat then return to the hotel, with a bit of a stop at a Walgreen’s so Mark can get some chloraseptic for his throat. I’m not really sure how long they were inside Walgreen’s because I stayed in the car and dozed off, but Melanie is pretty pissed when we get back to the hotel. She’s voicing her, uh, dissatisfaction that it’s now so late and she wanted to be back at the hotel quite a while ago so we could hang out and talk. I decide that I’m going to put my pajamas on, and I tell them, ‘okay, I’m going to change into my p.j.’s. When I come back out, this argument is going to be over. So, kiss and make up or beat the crap out of each other, whatever, but when I come back out, we’re all going to be nice and friendly again.’ I let them have a few extra minutes, then returned, and everything was kosher. Yes, that’s right, I am Michelle, the peacemaker. It’s another title I can add to my plethora of titles, such as the ATB Goddess and birthday Nazi. Now, I am drinking Skyy Blue. I have two bottles. As always happens, the alcohol is getting me a bit sleepy. They’re talking, I’m falling asleep. I woke up a couple of times, and they’re still talking. I don’t care, because being the hardcore sleeper that I am, I could sleep through a tornado. I talk to them a little each time I wake up, then fall back to sleep. Well, they don’t really decide to try to go to sleep until after the sun has risen, sometime around 6:30-ish. I found out from Melanie later that day that they didn’t really stop talking and go to sleep until around 10:30. Me, I slept the whole time. I was perfectly ready to get up at 11:30 for our wake-up call. They were sleeping like the dead. I actually had to go wake Mel up after I got my shower and got dressed up and everything. While waiting for them to get up and get ready, I think I text messaged half of the people in the address book of my cell phone. We ended up getting out of the room just for the 1:00 p.m. check-out. Then we headed over to IHOP for some breakfast, even though it was technically lunchtime. Um, the stuffed french toast is now my favorite restaurant breakfast ever. Yum. After IHOP, we parted ways with Mark. He apologized (I think apology number 1493 for the two day total) for acting so crazy and if he offended me. I told him it was completely fine, that I thought he was cool and very entertaining to be around. Seriously, there’s just something about the guy that makes him likable. If you can look past all the quirks, he’s a totally nice person. Anyway, Melanie and I decide to stop around by my house again to drop my crap off and, of course, check the message boards. YES WE ARE INTERNET NERDS AND WE ARE PROUD OF IT, DAMMIT! We follow this up with going to see “The Forgotten”, a very good and, as my other friend Mel C. put it, very X-Files-ish movie. After that, to cap the weekend off perfectly, we stop at Oberweis for ice cream. Can I just tell you how much I love Melanie if for her love of food alone. And by that, I don’t mean that she eats all the time, but that she really loves what she’s eating and gets a lot of pleasure from food. Me, I hardly ever stop to think too much about what I’m eating. After our ice cream trip, we head to the airport, where I drop her off for her flight back to Cali. It was sad to say goodbye to her. I didn’t think it was possible, but I love her even more now that I’ve met and hung out with her. We said several times how unfortunate it was that we didn’t live closer to each other so we could hang out together more often, and it is so true. I have decided that I will now start seriously saving for my trip out to Cali next year. Project save-for-Cali has been put into full effect. So, that’s about my weekend in a nutshell. A really big, long nutshell. Book recommendations: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown That’s right, after many, many, many recommendations, I’ve finally started reading Dan Brown’s books. I decided to go with this one first, since it was written before The DaVinci Code. I really like it, too. The hype was true. Music recommendations: “Garden State” soundtrack Jamie Cullum, Twentysomething Keane, Hopes & Fears Current Mood: sore (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, September 10th, 2004
10:43 pm	So much to say… Okay, that old way I was formatting my blurty? Yeah, I decided not to stick to that so much anymore. I’ll still give my reading and music recommendations, but probably more toward the end, after I talk about the ‘drama’ of my life. (Notice I put the word ‘drama’ in quotes, because, yeah, my life isn’t really that dramatic.) So, you may ask, just what has Michelle been up to in the more than month that it’s been since she posted an entry here. You might think to yourself, she hasn’t been up to anything, and, my friend, you’d be so wrong! I actually have cool stuff to talk about this time. Yippidee doo dah! First, let me start off with the John Mayer show on August 1st. Ah, John Mayer, how do I love thee? This show was freaking awesome. There’s really no other way to describe it. I wasn’t really digging DJ Logic, who was one of the openers, but once Maroon 5 got up on stage, I was pumped. As always, I wanted to sex Adam Levine up. But that’s beside the point. They were fabulous. Then Mayer gets up there and just blows us all away. The energy was there and he was so on, musically. It was really one of the best shows of his that I’ve ever seen, akin to the feeling I had when I went to see him for the very first time back in November of 2002. Man, November of 2002, that seems like such a long time ago, but it wasn’t even two years. My how the time does fly. So, on my way to pick up Christine K. for the Mayer show, she calls me on my cell to inform me that someone has just posted on the message board about a secret after-show he’ll be doing later that night at Schuba’s downtown, after the Tweeter show. Well, I was hesitant about going to that, because to drive all the way from Tinley Park to downtown Chicago is no easy feat. But when she and I started talking about it, and especially when we told Monica about it when we met up with her at the Tweeter show, I got so excited that we decided we were going. Several calls were made to people’s friends and ex-boyfriends, until we finally found someone to go all the way down to Schuba’s to buy us tickets. Unfortunately, when this person got down there, there was a line around the block. Meaning = sold out show. What a bummer. We really wanted to go to that after-show. I guess I’d have felt worse about it if the Tweeter show would have sucked, but since Mayer rocked my socks off for that one, I didn’t mind too much. The rest of the month of August left me anticipating the Gavin Degraw show I was going to in September. I and my brother’s girlfriend Melissa knew when we found out Gavin was coming back to town that we had to maintain our tradition of seeing him. On Friday, September 3rd, we hopped on the train over in Rosemont (yay Blue line!) and took that down to the House of Blues. We have since decided that Chicago got gypped on a cool-looking House of Blues, because our building is really fugly compared to the rest of the HoB’s all over the country. Anyway, we went, we basked in the awesomeness that is Gavin Degraw, and it was good. I mentioned to Melissa that, when he was singing “Let’s Get it On”, I think even some of the guys in the place wanted to jump his bones. Toby Lightman opened for him and blew me away with how great she was live. She is even better live than on her album, and that’s saying a lot. But Gavin definitely ruled the night. I came home that Friday, actually early Saturday morning, and crashed for 4 hours. I had to get up early on Saturday morning because Mom and I were going up to Grandma’s for Labor Day weekend. There’s not much to tell about that trip. We went, we hung out with Grandma and Aunt Sharon, and we came home. That’s about it. As if all of this was not enough, my friend Kate from work had invited me to go with her to see a couple of shows this week. It turned out that she couldn’t go to both of them after all, but having bought the tickets to both, she gave me the tickets for the second one so I could still go. The first show that we both went to was Ari Hest, at a cool little pub called The Abbey on the northwest side of the city. The guy that opened for him, Griffin House, was totally awesome. I definitely need to invest in some of his music, and so should you. When Ari and his band came out, man. I lack the words to fully express how much I love that man. I mean, I loved him before, but to see him live is almost too much. I told several people that his attractiveness distracted me from his music. I found myself fumbling and forgetting several of the lyrics to several of his songs because I was just basking in the glory that was Ari. I like to quote my current reading material when describing Ari’s looks, “he isn’t handsome in a pretty way; he is handsome in the way you’d like your husband to be handsome. Someone you can look at for the rest of your life, who won’t always be staring at himself.” (Shannon Olson, Welcome to my Planet…) Since we had to leave early, I didn’t get to stay and meet him (which I am still tremendously sad about), but I swear that next time he’s in town, I will. The next night, Thursday, Marc Boussard was playing, also at The Abbey. This show Kate couldn’t go to, and she missed a truly excellent show. I met several nice girls in line (shout out’s to Kathryn and Kristen!) and we sat together for the show. Well, it wasn’t long into Marc’s set that I knew staying seated was going to be impossible. That man just has so much damned energy and, dare I say it, soul. He brought his dad out to play guitar on several songs, and they jammed. He sang all of my favorites, as well as songs that I didn’t even know I wanted to hear. It was a totally different show than Ari Hest’s, not better, not worse, just different. Both of them were equally enjoyable, though. These are guys I highly recommend and I WILL be going to see the next time that they are in town. So, that’s been my exciting month and a half since my last entry. And you thought I had no life! My book recommendations: My current reading material is Shannon Olson’s Welcome to My Planet (Where English is Sometimes Spoken). The author is the main character, so although it is fiction, I’m sure it’s semi-autobiographical. I really like this book, because it’s not just a linear story line with chapters until the end. It’s more of a peek into the main character’s brain, kind of like Bridget Jones’s Diary. I really love this book, it’s an easy and entertaining read, and I recommend it to all. I’m also reading A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance, by Jane Juska. It’s a non-fiction book about a former teacher who decides, in her later years, to put a personal ad in the New York Review of Book that says, “Before I turn 67-next March, I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like.” Just reading that in on the book’s jacket made me interested enough to check it out of the library. I’m not far into the book yet, but I already love the author’s view on women and sex and life. My music recommendations: Ari Hest, Someone to Tell Marc Broussard, Carencro Current Mood: hungry Current Music: Ari Hest, Someone to Tell (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 24th, 2004
10:52 am	July, July, what can I say about July? What I’ve been reading… I started a few books, but I couldn’t really get into them. For instance, the new Dean Koontz. I don’t know if I’m not in the right frame of mind to read him or what, but I just couldn’t seem to get into it. Maybe in the fall… I’ve been reading a few young adult books, actually. They’re quicker reads, and just as (if not more) entertaining as the so-called adult novels. I read Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli. As far as I’m concerned, that book should be required reading for anyone entering the strange and scary land of teenagedom. I’m currently reading Tithe, by Holly Black. It’s a very very dark ‘faery tale’ full of scary and violent images and some questionable language. So, it goes without saying, that I am enjoying it immensely. I currently have, like, 30 books checked out of the library, most of which are just sitting around, but I’ve promised myself to devote more time to my reading, especially on the weekend. We’ll see if I stick with that, or if it falls by the wayside like every diet or exercise plan I’ve ever attempted. ;o) What I’ve been listening to… well, since it’s summer, I felt like I needed to go a little retro in my car and break out some ‘summer’ music. For me, this means those oldies but goodies. I borrowed a few ‘60s albums from work, and they were amazing. Then, I started listening to a Buddy Guy album and was really digging his stuff. I’ve now resorted to taking CDs out of my own local library, instead of the one I work at. This is because, frankly, our collection at work sucks. So, I’ve borrowed: Kings of Leon, Youth and Young Manhood – This was not at all what I expected it to be, which was pleasantly surprising. I believe all the ‘experts’ classify this band as alt-rock. They have a country-ish sound, too. I enjoyed them. They’ll go into my collection along with The Shins. J.C. Chasez, Schizophrenic - J.C. was always my favorite from *N Sync. I always thought he was the most creative and talented, despite Justin always getting the spotlight and fame. So, I expected great things from this album and it did not disappoint. It’s very much a dance album… and by dance, I mean bump ‘n’ grind. My friends weren’t kidding when they said this album was all about sex. But, who doesn’t need a good, sexciting album once in a while? I’ve also borrowed some O.A.R. albums, intent on getting over my dislike of them or cementing it. I’ll let you know next time what the result of this experiment is. What’s been going on… work, work, and more work. It’s a good thing I like my job, because all the crap around that place really bothers me sometimes. Not to mention the low pay and crappy benefits. Ah, yes, being an adult is so much fun! Too bad they don’t really tell you about this in school. My mom and I went and saw ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ last night. My rating: 4 stars out of 5. It wasn’t the best movie ever, because there are so few of those, but it was extremely good. Now, I’m not a huge Matt Damon fan; I have a general appreciation for him, like many other people. But he was so hott in this movie that I wanted to do bad things to him. Um, yeah. So, two concerts coming up for me. The Maroon5/John Mayer show is next weekend. I’m sure Christine K. and I will have a blast. She’s promised to get drunk, so it looks like I’m the designated driver again. FOILS! My evil, drunken plan is ruined again! I’m also going with my brother’s girlfriend, Melissa, to see Gavin DeGraw at the Chicago HoB in September. She’s all googly over him ever since I introduced her to his music by dragging her with me to the Maroon5/Gavin show last November. Not that I don’t appreciate Gavin, too. Actually, I had a rather X-rated dream about him last night, and it was goooooood. Ah, but that’s a story for another time… and a more mature audience. Current Mood: horny Current Music: J.C. Chasez, Schizophrenic (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 20th, 2004
8:09 pm	Summer’s Here! Yay or Nay? What I’ve been reading… The library is running an adult summer reading program, so I’ve been trying to read as much as possible. It’s still not nearly as much as I should read, but I’m trying. I finally finished my pirating non-fiction book, Under the Black Flag. I started reading the juvenile book series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and finished books 1 through 4 of that. It’s a good series for kids maybe a little too young for the likes of Harry Potter, about 3 siblings who move to their aunt’s old estate, only to find themselves immersed into a world filled with fantastic creatures such as faieries, trolls, and dwarves. I’m also continuing with the Anita Blake, vampire hunter series, by Laurell K. Hamilton. I’ve made a silent agreement with myself to finish the whole 11 book series by the end of this summer. I’m on the 6th book right now… any bets as to if I will finish all of them in time? I also started reading Dean Koontz’s newest book, The Taking, which is already weird. I’ve found that this is always a good sign for any book by my favorite author. What I’ve been listening to… I’ll go into further detail down in the ‘what’s been going on’ section, but since my car is out of commission, I haven’t been listening to all that many CDs. This is what I have checked out: Chantal Kreviazuk, Colour Moving and Still: She’s a really talented singer/songwriter that I first heard on, believe it or not, one of the “Dawson’s Creek” soundtracks. She’s got a really lovely voice. And she’s Canadian, eh. Belle & Sebastian, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk like a Peasant: I’ve heard good things, I’ve heard bad things, all on my internet home, My Stupid Mouth. So, I decided, since one of the libraries in our system miraculously owned this album, I’d borrow it and make up my own mind. It’s really different, I will say that much. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. Erykah Badu, Live: I have loved Erykah Badu’s soulful, jazzy voice for a few years now, and since I have my job at the library, decided to finally borrow this live CD. I’m really glad I did. It gives you a peek into her mother earthy personality. One of my personal favorite songs, ‘Jerome’, is a great anthem for any woman out there tired of the man she has and ready to kick him to the curb. Jessica Simpson, In this Skin: Why was I listening to Jessica Simpson? Well, as dumb as she may appear to people, I find her to be one of the most tolerable female pop stars out there. Her voice isn’t bad, her songs are pretty sugary sweet… basically, this is just a fun, no-brainer pop album. Afro Celt Sound System, Volume 3, Further in Time: I loved the song this group did with Peter Gabriel on the ‘Gangs of New York’ soundtrack, so when I learned one of the libraries in our system owned a whole album of their music, I had to borrow it. I think this is one of my new favorites. It’s got the African-inspired drums and beats, the Celtic pipes, and some electronica thrown in for good measure. I highly recommend this group to anyone looking for something different that will be extremely pleasing to your ears. What’s been going on… The most memorable thing to happen over the past few weeks was my car accident on June 9th. I was on my way to work, almost there actually, and was rear-ended by another driver. I wasn’t hurt, a good thing that many people have repeatedly told me, but my car was damaged very badly. The back was completely smashed in. Since then, it’s been one headache after another of talking to dozens of insurance agents and trying to find out just what kind of settlement I’m going to end up with for my car. I heard from the other driver’s insurance company this past Friday, and it wasn’t very good news. They want to give me just enough to pay off what I still owe on my car, but not more than that. This would leave me without any vehicle at all, since they’d total my car. I’m pretty pissed off about this, as you can imagine. I’m not one of those money-grubbing kind of people that just looks for any opportunity to hire a lawyer and sue people for as much as possible. No, I’m not that kind of person at all. I just want what is fair and what, I believe, I deserve. That being, a good vehicle. My car was in great condition, above the average of what all the car guides say a ’99 Honda Civic should be. I don’t think it’s asking too much to have the insurance company of the person who hit me give me enough so I can be where I was before the accident happened. So, it looks like more headaches for me, in the near future at least, while I try to get this whole mess sorted out. Oh, and you may be wondering about the other driver. The other person’s car was barely damaged and they were able to drive away from the accident without any problem at all. Figures. So, besides that bit of bad news, my life has been a series of working during the weekdays and going to various graduation, bridal shower, and holiday parties on the weekends. It’s not all that exciting, trust me, but it is nice to do something on the weekends, get around other people and out of the house. Plus, free food is always a good thing. My mom and I did go out with a few of the ladies from work this past Tuesday to see “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” It was very good; I was really pleased and am anticipating the next movie, and the next book. One thing that was noticeably lacking was the presence of Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore. The new actor is very good, don’t get me wrong, but so different. Maybe it’ll seem more comfortable in the next movie for me, who knows? Current Mood: aggravated Current Music: Alanis Morissette, "Everything" (Comment on this)
Friday, May 7th, 2004
2:07 pm	T.G.I.F. What I’ve been reading… Does anybody else find it sad that I am still reading that book about pirates… the same book I was reading during my last blurty entry? I have no life, but I can’t finish that book in a timely manner. There is no hope for me when it comes to reading all the books I want to read. Well, maybe once the t.v. season is over, I can devote that time to reading. So, yeah, I did read the third and fourth ‘Anita Blake’ books, The Circus of the Damned and The Lunatic Café. Now I’m reading the fifth in the series, Bloody Bones. I do enjoy this supernatural crime stuff. Some might call me a weirdo, I just call me unique. What I’ve been listening to… lots of stuff to add to the list here. I’ve listened to, and loved, the following: The Chillout Sessions: this has various artists on it and is very cool. Some of the songs are electronic, some are kind of new-agey, all of them are good. Some of the artists on this 2 CD set are Massive Attack, Zero 7, Fischerspooner, and Sigur Ros. As the title implies, it’s a good album to chill out to. Blue Man Group, The Complex: I saw Blue Man Group last summer with my friend Christine, and we both loved it. It’s really nothing like anything I’d ever seen before. So, I was interested in hearing their album, which I saw was for sale at the show. Luckily, one of the libraries had it, so I borrowed it from them. Now, Blue Man Group is really an acoustically driven group of guys, who turn common and uncommon objects into musical instruments, much like the group from Stomp. On this album, they have a lot of guests singing and playing on their songs, such as Dave Matthews, Tracy Bonham, and Gavin Rossdale. It’s really good, in an usual kind of way. Dar Williams, The Beauty of the Rain: I think Dar Williams is my newest favorite female singer-songwriter. She has a great voice, but her songs are really awesome and emotional. One of the members of one of the message boards that I post at recommended her to everyone, so I thought I’d do a search for her at the library. I didn’t really expect to find that any library in our system owned her album, but low and behold, one did! So, I borrowed this and fell in love with it. She’s a great artist and one I highly recommend to anyone who’s looking for new female musicians to enjoy. The Strokes, Is this It: Now, I had told more than a few people that I didn’t like The Strokes. I really thought I didn’t like them. Well, it turns out I did like them, just never knew it until I actually heard their album. I also listened to the newer one, Room on Fire, but I definitely liked this one better. It has more of a raspy, garage-band sound. They really are quite rockin’. Five for Fighting, The Battle for Everything: This is a great album. Even better than their first, which I own and love. They’re a pretty mainstream band, so I won’t go too much into detail here, except to recommend them to everyone. Jet, Get Born: This is a terrific Australian-bred rock band that everyone should check out if they haven’t already. A friend of mine described them as “Rolling Stones Jr.”, and I’d have to say that’s pretty accurate. The album is truly a rock album, none of the rock subcategories like alternative and the like needed. It’s kind of a throwback to the good old days of rock, before all those categories existed, at least it is for me. The album has plenty of rock songs, along with some great rock-ballad types. It’s very quickly becoming one of my favorites. What’s been going on… Sadly, not too much. Just about the only exciting thing that has happened is the movies I’ve gone to see, with my mom. Let’s see, we’ve seen “Walking Tall” (mmmm, The Rock), “Hellboy” (one of the more excellent and entertaining comic book adaptations I’ve seen… and Mom liked it, too!), and “Man on Fire” (a nice, bloody, violent revenge pick… can’t go wrong with those). Since this weekend is the start of the summer movie season, my favorite season of all, I’m taking my mom for dinner and a movie for Mother’s Day, to see “Van Helsing”. There are so many more good-looking movies coming up in the following weeks, I’m sure the majority of the activities I’ll be doing this summer will involve theater-going. The fact that seeing a movie doesn’t cost too much, especially when I work the matinee and discounts, does help, too. Current Mood: bored Current Music: Harry Connick, Jr.: Songs I Heard (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 10th, 2004
3:53 am	April is for fools… What I’ve been reading… Mainly, two books. One is “Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates” by David Cordingly. As you can tell from the title, it’s about pirates. It’s also one of the most interesting non-fiction books I’ve read in long time. I’ve found it very hard to get into non-fiction books lately, but this one just has my complete attention. Maybe it’s the subject matter (I have, after all, seen ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ at least 100 times by now, due in large part to my ‘husband’, Orlando); maybe it’s the author’s fantastic ability to weave together tales of pirate adventures with facts and myths. Whatever the reason, I am totally engrossed in it. I even went so far as to seek out other books by this author, both of which are also about pirates. The other book I’ve been reading is the third book in the ‘Anita Blake’ series by Laurell K. Hamilton, titled “Circus of the Damned”. I’ve been very entertained by this series, even if I do get a bit frustrated with some of the characters actions. I’ll find myself sitting at lunch, reading the book, and I’ll actually sigh, roll my eyes, and say out loud something along the lines of “Oh my god!” Now, if that’s not a mark of good fiction, I don’t know what is. What I’ve been listening to… As usual, I’ve been listening to a lot of CDs that I’ve borrowed from the library. Actually, I’ve gotten some reprimands at work because I was over my limit for how many CDs we’re allowed to have checked out at once… OOPS! ;o) Anyhow, I’ve listened to and really liked a lot of albums. Here’s just a short list: David Gray: White Ladder My mom walked into the room while this was on and said, ‘ooh, who is that?’ and when I told her, she replied, ‘ooh, I like him.’ Yeah, my mom has excellent taste in music. She is the reason I’m such a music lover. Macy Gray: On How Life Is I know this album is kind of old and that she’s had two since this one was released, but this is a very good R&B album. It’s hard for me to find R&B that I really like nowadays, but Macy Gray is definitely a keeper. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots I am so late on the bandwagon for The Flaming Lips, but I loved this album. It was really nothing at all like I expected, which was kind of a pleasant surprise. Very electronic and ambient. “American Wedding” Soundtrack I borrowed this mostly because Matt Nathanson was on there (woo-hoo, Matty Naynay!), but I liked most of the punkish-rock songs, too. It’s a very good album for people like me who want to have a copy of songs like “Anthem” by Good Charlotte and “Bouncing off the Walls” by Sugarcult, but don’t necessarily want to buy the whole album by these bands. What’s been going on… Well, my mom and I traveled back to Indiana this past Tuesday. My best friend from college, Christine Martin, called me last Saturday to let me know that her mom had passed away. Her mom had been battling Cancer for quite awhile, and the doctors recently decided to stop her chemotherapy treatments because they were only making her sicker. Her funeral was on Tuesday, and I went to support Christine. She is such an amazing person, let me tell you. She held it all together, better than I know I would have if I had been in that position. She is one awesome lady. It was a sad occasion that brought us together, but it was good to see her again. Other than that, the only noteworthy thing that happened in my week was buying tickets for the John Mayer show that’ll be happening this summer here. Now, I don’t think it’s a secret that I adore John Mayer. He is truly the first singer/songwriter that I’ve really connected with. His lyrics are like sometimes like my feelings put into words. And through being a fan of his, I’ve been introduced to so many other new artists that I probably wouldn’t have known about. Not to mention all the fellow Mayer fans that I’ve become friends with all over the country (and even internationally). All that said, I’m only attending one show this summer tour. I’d have loved to go to several, but the fact that his tickets are in the $50 price range for this tour made that out of the question. I made a promise to myself a few years ago that I would see Mayer every time he came through or near to Chicago, and I’ve followed through on that. I’ll continue to do it, too, as long as my financial situation permits it. But as much as I love this man and his music… 50 freaking dollars for tickets? Who does he think he is, Elvis? And I’ll sign off of this blurty entry with a dream (interestingly enough, about John Mayer) that I had last night… I was at a Mayer concert with two of my friends. We were sitting off to the right side of the stage, and for some reason, couldn’t hear a damned thing. So I went up to one of the ushers and told him that we couldn’t hear anything on our side, and asked him if he could see about doing something about that. Well, to my total shock, he got really irate with me, called a couple of other ushers over, and they told me I was being thrown out of the venue. WTF? I was pissed. I told them that was a b.s. reason to kick me out, for complaining? I told my friends to stay and enjoy the rest of the show and that I’d meet them back at the car. Well, security escorted me out. I was still very upset at this point, like angry almost to the point of tears. Instead of walking me to the main entrance, they take me back to this sectioned off part of the theater. I’m wondering what the hell is going on, when to my complete surprise, they take me backstage, and there’s John Mayer and Scotty Crowe! WTF, again? I just stood there, jaw to the floor, and the two guys are just all in their glory. They explain to me that they decided to pull a prank on one of the audience members with crappy seats (hello, MSM April Fools ringing a bell as a trigger for this, anyone?). I’m still pissed, but relieved. I ask Mayer how the hell is he backstage when he’s supposed to be out performing? He explains that he and Scotty figured out a way to make it appear that he was onstage performing. WTF, part three? For some reason, I accept this explanation as being totally logical. So, the two boys and I proceed to jump in a car and go hang out around the city. We went from place to place, staying up all night and just having fun. We have several fun conversations and I quickly get over my ‘ohmygod it’s John Mayer! and Scotty Crowe!’ anxiety and just joke around with both of them like their old pals. In the morning, they drop me off back at home with a promise to keep in touch. Yeah, a totally unbelievable and unrealistic dream, I know, but I woke up with a huge grin on my face. Current Mood: awake Current Music: "Weapon of Choice" by Fatboy Slim (Comment on this)
Monday, March 29th, 2004
9:07 pm	March, in like a lion and out like a … wet lion… What I’ve been reading… I’m continuing on with the Anita Blake vampire hunter series. I’m on the third book now and am pretty satisfied with them all so far. I’m also reading Iyanla Vanzant’s book “In the Meantime”. I checked out a bunch of her books, as well as several of Dr. Phil’s, in a fit of emotional empowerment of wanting to improve myself. We’ll see if I actually read them all and if they actually help me with all that I feel unsatisfied with. What I’ve been listening to… Well, we got a whole bunch of new CDs at the library, so I, of course, borrowed half of them. I really enjoyed the soundtracks from “School of Rock,” “Lost in Translation,” and “Gangs of New York.” I also really liked The Shins’ album Chutes too Narrow and Death Cab for Cutie’s Transatlanticism. I also enjoyed: The Diary of Alicia Keys, by Alicia Keys; Time after Time, Eva by Heart, Imagine, American Tune, and No Boundaries, all by Eva Cassidy; and Coverage, by Mandy Moore, which was really excellent and I highly recommend it to everyone. What’s been going on… On the weekend of March 20th, my mom, our dog, and I took a trip up to northern Wisconsin to visit my grandmother and celebrate her 90th birthday, although it was a bit early. We had fun, or as much fun as you can have in a small Wisconsin town. My aunt Beth, who lives in Arizona, flew in to surprise my grandma, and she succeeded. The first words out of my grandma’s mouth when she saw Aunt Beth, “Oh, you little shit!” That Saturday night, we took grandma out to dinner, along with my two aunts. After that, we decided to stop at a bar for drinks. Well, I was putting them away, let me tell you, with the urging of my two aunts, who were known to get their drink on in their day. Hell, my mom and my grandma were party girls way back when, too, so I guess it’s in my blood. Yeah, because I know the term most of you would use to describe me is ‘party girl’… riiiiiight. ;o) Anyway, we went out for drinks. There were a few other people at the bar, an older couple and another man. Well, we were chatting and it came out that we were celebrating my grandma’s 90th birthday. Nobody could believe that she was 90 and they all said so. As the night was winding down for us and were getting ready to leave, the one man said something like “well, I’ll probably never have another opportunity to kiss a 90-year-old woman” and then proceeded to come over and give Grandma a kiss. No wanting to be one-upped, the other man said, “well, I guess I’ll have to give you a kiss now, too” and he kissed Grandma, too! My grandmother seemed to be enjoying herself quite well at this point. My Aunt’s response: “Jeez, Mom, this is the most action you’ve seen in years!” Grandma’s response: “Let’s get out of here before I get raped!” Yeah, my grandma rocks. Last weekend, Christine Kim (of MSM fame) and I traveled up to Kenosha, WI to see John Mayer perform at Carthage College. When I got there and we realized just how close our seats were (third row, although off to one side) and how small the venue actually was, we were beyond excited. Let me just say Guster, who opened for Mayer, really rocked my socks off. They put on a kickass show and I wouldn’t mind seeing them again sometime, Mayer or no. The funniest thing of that night was the two guys a few rows back and off to our left who were just rocking out to Guster like nobody’s business. They were so into it, which was awesome, but I couldn’t help but laugh at them. I’m glad they seemed to enjoy themselves so much. Mayer came out after Guster and put on a decent show. It wasn’t the best show or my favorite show, but it wasn’t bad. He seemed to play a lot of songs off of ‘Room for Squares’, along with some off the first half of ‘Heavier Things’. I was kind of disappointed with the set list, because I really wanted to hear more of the songs off the second half of ‘Heavier Things’. He did play his new song ‘Hummingbird’, which was truly awesome to see/hear live. All in all, I had fun at the show, made more so by the fact that I was there with a girl who’s as huge a Mayer fan as I am; however, this wasn’t my favorite Mayer show. I’d have to say my favorite was my first, the UIC Pavilion show back in November 2002. The best show, as far as the set list and Mayer banter goes, was the Allstate Arena show last November. Hopefully, he’ll do a summer tour and come back to the Chicago area and all of us Chicago fans will be able to go and party it up together. Current Mood: aggravated (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 13th, 2004
11:33 pm	Okay, who knows a good Irish drinking song? What I’ve been reading… I’m getting into this new series by Laurell K. Hamilton. You might not have known this, but I’m a big fan of vampire books, movies, and shows. I was one of those people that was just heartbroken over the loss of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” on t.v. So, I heard about this series of books about vampire-hunter Anita Blake (the main character in Hamilton’s books), and I decided to give it a try. I’m really enjoying her first book, Guilty Pleasures, and am eagerly trying to finish it and get to get to the next book, The Laughing Corpse. Now, if you’re looking at those titles and thinking to yourself, ‘what the hell is she reading?’ know that the titles are usually names of vampire clubs and/or hangouts. In a totally different vein (no pun intended), I’m also reading a book by Alex S. MacLean called Designs on the Land: Exploring America from the Air. Truthfully, I’m not sure you can say you’ve actually read this book so much as looked at it. It’s mostly pictures of various places in America from the air, with some writing to introduce each section. It’s really interesting to look at these pictures of cities and farms and think of how vast and yet how small this country really is. What I’ve been listening to… some of my old faves, actually. I’ve been jonesing for Maroon5 lately, so I listened to their album ‘Songs about Jane’ in my car for almost a week straight. For those of you who haven’t heard Maroon5, or only know them from the singles on the radio, you should really check out this album. It’s good, funky rock that, as I have already told many people, is pure sex. I’ve also been listening to Guster’s ‘Keep it Together’ and ‘Lost and Gone Forever’. I’m not sure what to say about this band other than they kick-ass in a poppy, bongo-drumming way. I was also listening to Jason Mraz’s ‘Waiting for my Rocket to Come’ yesterday and today. I love the album. His lyricism and the way he sings, which I can only describe as being in the style of the old-school scatting (don’t know scat? It’s a jazz term, look it up.) And finally, my musical life would not be complete without a little John Mayer thrown in there. Yes, yes, I went back and pulled out ‘Heavier Things’ and was rockin’ out to ‘Clarity’ and ‘Bigger than My Body’ today. Hmmmm, am I the only one who notices that all of the above mentioned music was inspired/encouraged by my online friends and MSM? Peculiar. ;o) What’s been going on… as usual, I’ve been working my butt off. I opened at the library on Wednesday and Thursday along with my supervisor, all in preparation for opening myself on Friday morning. It’s really not a big deal; there is just stuff that needs to be done in the morning before the library opens to the public. You know, you’d never believe how much work goes on in a library. Really. I never knew until I started working there. So, yeah, the next time you go to your library, smile and say thank you to your librarian. He or she will appreciate it. Besides that, the only exciting thing I’ve done recently is get my hair cut. It’s kind of the same style as last time, only shorter and with more of a wedge to make it shorter in the back. Yeah, I know that probably doesn’t give you a very good mental image, but that’s the best I can do. I can tell you that it definitely looks good and, as my mom said, “it makes you look really professional.” Now, if I love it, and my mom loves it, it must be awesome. Current Mood: thirsty (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 28th, 2004
3:02 pm	Goodbye to February, just in time for leap-year What I've been reading... The Earth, My Butt, and other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. It's what I like to refer to as another installation in the 'Big Girl's' book series I've somehow been reading lately. First, Jemimah J, now this. It's a very good book, at any rate. It's about an overweight 15-year-old who's kind of the misfit of her otherwise perfect family. I'm about halfway through it and it's made me laugh, made me want to cry, made me angry. It's a definite must-read. What I've been listening to... Wow, a lot of music for me lately. I finally listened to Audioslave's self-titled album, which rocked. Chris Cornell is hott, no doubt about it. I've also listened to The Rolling Stone's "Forty Licks", which is a nice introduction to the band for a novice like me. Besides that, Ryan Adams "Love is Hell, Part 1", which I loved. I haven't been overly thrilled with Demolition and Rock 'N Roll, his last two; this latest one, though, seems to harken (did I just actually use the word 'harken'?) back to his "Gold" days, an album I absolutely adored. Also, Shawn Colvin's "Whole New You", which I also loved, and Diana Krall's "When I Look in Your Eyes". Diana Krall just might be my new girl-crush. She's beautiful and has a gorgeous voice. What's been going on... Quite a bit, actually, which is unusual for me. Besides working my a** off, I've been actually going out the past few weekends. Last weekend, I had my long-awaited "date" with Christine Kim, fellow Mayer fan and ATBer 4 Lyfe! She's a doll, and, I must confess, a total cutie. I think she's going to make me look bad when we go to the Mayer show in March. Anyway, she and I went and saw "50 First Dates" which was funny and oh so cute. Afterwards, we went over and got our eat on at T.G.I. Friday's. I'm now anxiously awaiting or small road trip to Kenosha at the end of March for what promises to be another John Mayer-inspired good time. Last weekend was also my best friend's birthday, so she had a little gathering over at her place for that. We ate, we talked, just generally visited. I hadn't talked to her in awhile, so we got caught up with each other for the most part. As for this weekend... tonight is my dad's retirement party. If nothing else, it'll be an excuse to drink... as if I needed an excuse. Wow, I sound like kind of a lush, don't I? Tomorrow will probably just be a day of general laziness, watching movies and staying in my pajamas all day to be topped off with watching the Academy Awards tomorrow night. All I can say is if Bill Murray doesn't win, heads are gonna roll somewhere! Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: Toad the Wet Sprocket: P.S. (A Toad Retrospective) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 14th, 2004
10:57 pm	Down with overly-commercialized holidays! What I've been reading... well, since I've successfully finished the most of the last books I was reading, finally, I've started a few new ones. I'm really enjoying Dean Koontz's newest, Odd Thomas. It seems to be a throwback to some of his earlier works where it's a funny and dramatic piece of work rooted in the supernatural. I'm also reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Classical Mythology. I find the subject of Mythology to be fascinating and decided to do a little reading about it. Plus, I love the 'Complete Idiot's Guide to' and 'for Dummies' books. What I've been listening to... oh, wow, a lot of stuff. I've been going kind of crazy with borrowing CDs from the library lately. I really enjoyed the most recent Luther Vandross album, 'Dance with my Father'. I also loved Eva Cassidy's 'Songbird'. She had such a beautiful voice, it's so sad to think that she's passed away and won't be making any new music for us to enjoy. Another album I really love is Ben Harper's 'Diamonds on the Inside'. I bought this CD a while ago, but didn't get around to listening to it until today. All I keep thinking is 'why did I wait so freaking long to listen to this? It's bloody brilliant!' What's been going on... Working, as usual. Our computer system at the library went down for almost the whole day this past Thursday. That really sucked, hard core. We could check books out, but we couldn't check anything in or do any of our regular work that involves the computer system, which was pretty much everything. Well, we did just about every bit of work that we could do that didn't involve the computers that day, but, man, it was boring. Then, I got to work early Friday morning, thinking we'd have a lot of backed up work to catch up on, only to find that the system was still down! It took SBC until shortly before 11:00 a.m. to get our system back up, at which point we were working our tails off to catch up with everything. I can only say that those were two of the most stressful days of work for us since I started there and I can only hope never to experience that again anytime soon. Now, for the entertaining portion of this blurty... I had two dreams last night that I want to share with you. In the first dream, I was at odds with rapper 50 Cent. For some reason, he didn't like me, and he kept threatening me with his gun. So, naturally, I did the 'logical' thing and took one of his other guns and shot him first. WTF was that all about? The second dream was very short but perhaps one of the loveliest I've had in quite some time. In it, I was apparently dating Orlando Bloom (sha, right!) and we were in bed together. Now, don't let your mind venture to the gutter, because all we did was lay in bed together and cuddle. He had his arms wrapped around me and I had mine around him. We talked to each other, both half-asleep, and fell asleep that way. *BIG SIGH* Yeah, that was a GREAT dream. Current Mood: bored Current Music: "Philadelphia" soundtrack (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 27th, 2004
10:42 pm	Let it snow... and snow... and snow... What I've been reading... So, you'll be happy, and proud of me, to know that I've actually finished some of those books I mentioned that I was reading a while back. My only excuse is that I just don't have enough quality reading time. Anyway, I'm still reading Jemimah J, by Jane Green. This is a funny, sometimes heartbreaking, witty, intelligent book that I think every woman should read. I identify so much with the main character, Jemimah, and her issues with being overweight and her self-image. I'm also reading Why Christianity Must Change or Die by John Shelby Spong, a non-fiction book written by a Bishop who argues that The Church needs to modernize itself and get out of the mire of antiquated traditions and dogma. I saw this man on an episode of 'Politically Incorrect with Bill Mahr" quite a few years ago and was intrigued by his candor and 'liberal' thinking. What I've been listening to... Teitur, Poetry and Aeroplanes. My friend Christine sent me this (thanks, girl, smoochies) a while ago for a late Christmas/Birthday gift and I just absolutely love it. He's kind of a mellow, pop-rockish (God, I hate that description) singer-songwriter who reminds me a bit of Sting. I highly recommend him to all. Other albums I've listened to and liked lately include: The Wallflowers, Red Letter Days; Damien Rice, O; Usher, 8701; Vertical Horizon, Go; "What a Girl Wants" Soundtrack; Toni Braxton, More than a Woman AND The Heat. Let me just take this opportunity to say how much I love working at the library, where I can borrow a plethora of CDs at any given time. What's been going on... Oh, geez. Well, I got a new hairdo a couple of weeks ago. It's short-ish, a bob cut slightly below my earlobes and slightly layered and slightly wedged to be higher in the back. It looks awesome and has garnered me many compliments from people. So, last weekend, I went and got highlights, to top off the whole new hairdo look. Why have I never gotten hightlights before? They look so awesome, give my hair such texture, make my natural color brighter and prettier. I love my hairdresser, she's the bomb! Other than that, there's not much interesting that's been going on in my life. I just stick to working everyday and am usually so tired when I get home that I have to take a short nap. I can tell you that I'm thinking of joining a gym, possibly Bally's or the YMCA, as soon as my Curves membership expires. I love working out at Curves and I love the atmosphere, but their hours are just not convenient for me. I need to be able to work out in the mornings before work or later in the evening after work and on the weekends. So, we'll see what happens with that. What I do know is that I want to get back to working out regularly, because I think if I was doing regular exercise, I'd be losing weight. And that's all she wrote... Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 20th, 2004
11:06 pm	Matt Nathanson/Gavin Degraw, Chicago, House of Blues, 01.18.04 I'm going to diverge from my usual format yet again to post my 'review' of this show for you. Those of you who are peeps from the message boards, it's pretty much the same as what I posted over there... Okay, now that I've calmed down a bit from all the buoyant joy I was feeling, here's my story of the show. There's no set lists, because I was way too into the show to remember to write them down. And by 'into the show', I, of course, mean I had been drinking. ;) So, I went to the show with my brother's girlfriend, Melissa. This is the same Melissa who went with me to see Michael Tolcher/Gavin/M5 back in November. The same Melissa who gave Gavin her scarf. Anywho, we had an awesome time. We actually got there before the show started this time and immediately headed for the bar to have a drink/warm up after the cold walk from the train station to the HoB. Matt started this show and was, of course, awesome. He played the standard set, whatever the hell that means, and threw in some witty banter in between songs. He had his potty mouth going in full effect that night, the potty mouth that all Matt fans know and love. Melissa now loves him possibly for this reason above all others. Anyway, he played for about an hour, and then it was Gavin's turn. We weren't sure if Matt was coming back to meet and sign after his set or after Gavin's, so we went back and sat by the merch area for a while. When one of the guys mentioned that Matt wouldn't be out until after the show was over, we decided to head back out and watch Gavin's set, which had already begun. Well, good thing we'd seen Gavin previously, because finding a good spot to actually see from was nearly impossible, especially for Melissa, who's 4'9". So we kind of saw the show but mostly heard it. We headed back to the merch area before Gavin's set was over, because the line to meet them had already started and was getting long. So, we brought up the back of the line and watched the monitors. We met two very nice girls (shout-outs to Jen and Jamie) in line who let us sneak back in behind them when several people decided to just cut in front of us. The security guards actually came to the back of the line and told the last, oh, 20 people that they had to leave, and Melissa and I were just behind the cut off. We were, as you can, imagine, beyond pissed. We'd waited for more than an hour and a half. So, we took out our coat check tickets and went to get our coats, and as we walked back, the girls were just like, 'hey, they're with us', so we got back in line. We met Gavin first, and he was beyond awesome. He made me blush, and we shared some flirty talk about tongues or something. Next, we met Matt, who was just so cool. He just made you feel like he was just this cool guy hanging with you and chatting. He signed my stuff and actually asked if my name was spelled with two "L's" and I said yes and that he rocked for spelling it right and how much it pissed me off when people spelled it with only one "L". His reply: "Who are these people? Tell me and I will kick their asses for you." How awesome is he? So, after that, we headed out. We took the train back from downtown to the 'burbs, both Melissa and I saying, "That show was awesome. Wasn't that show awesome?" like 20 or 30 times. We both had a fun and memorable time. Oh, and here's a little quote that I'm stealing from Anna... "Now, in case any of you homophobes don't want to participate in an orgy led by matt, then just pretend we're eating ice cream and sharing a spoon. While naked and humping." - Matt Nathanson, HOB 1/18/04 Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Friday, January 9th, 2004
11:35 pm	A Sad, Sad Day... I'm going to diverge from my up-to-now traditional format for my blurty with some heartbreaking news for me… I'm very sad today because we had to put my beloved dog, Einstein, to sleep. He was suffering from a ruptured disc in his spine that was slowly paralyzing him and causing him a great deal of pain. So, instead of seeing him go through further suffering, we decided to end his misery and have him put to sleep. Needless to say, I miss my buddy. The hardest thing for me to do today was to walk into the house and not have him be here waiting for me. That really broke me up. Our house feels really empty without him here. That's something else that's really hard for me. I keep looking around and it just doesn't feel like our home anymore. So, today has been a very emotional day for my mom and I. I know he's in a better place and that what we did was for him, but it's just so damned hard to not have him here with us. Current Mood: sad (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 1st, 2004
10:16 pm	Happy 2004 to you and yours! What I've been reading... a cute children's book by Kate DiCamillo called The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread. I loved both of this author's other two books, Because of Winn-Dixie and Tiger Rising, so I kind of knew I'd like this one, too. It's kind of a fairy tale. I highly recommend it. What I've been listening to... I finally listened to some CDs I've had for a while. First, Michael Tolcher, a singer-songwriter who will be opening the next few months for Gavin DeGraw and Matt Nathanson. Michael has a little ways to go before he's great, but I really enjoyed his album. It’s kind of a typical soft rock album, but he has some catchy songs on there. I also listened to Dido's 'Life for Rent' and 'Fallen' by Evanescence. The Dido CD is awesome. If you liked her last one, you'll probably like this one. But if you didn't like the last one, you still might like this one. There's a little less of that 'techno' feel to it. Either that or the electronic sounds are a bit less overpowering and heavy. I really liked it. And I loved the Evanescence album. I know it came out quite some time ago, and many people have recommended it, but I just finally got a copy for Christmas. It's a really wonderful blend of hard rock/metal, although it's not all loud and screaming. It's actually a bit mellow and dreamy, if that makes any sense. I loved it, and so did my mom, which I find rather amusing. What's been going on... jeez, what hasn't been going on would be a better question to ask. Mom returned from her Florida trip, so I had to pick her up at the airport on Tuesday night. I was glad to have her home, although I was almost too busy while she was gone to miss her too much. Her arrival home also meant that I could finally open the rest of my Christmas gifts, and guess what she got me? A DVD player for my room? How cool is that? Ice cold! I hooked that bad boy up today and it works awesome! Other than that, I've been working my butt off. We've been really busy since Christmas, which was a bit of a shock to the system after being so slow in the weeks leading up to the holiday. I'm glad to keep busy all day because it keeps my mind of my problems, but we get so busy that it's hard to get anything done other than checking out books to people and checking in books that people return. I'll be glad when we get back to a semi-normal pace. Now, as for New Year's Eve... we went to (now stick with me here) my mom's best friend's son's house for their annual party. It's cool… we have a pool tournament every year and the pair who wins gets a trophy and everything. We also do a ‘White Elephant’ gift exchange where everyone brings a present wrapped, usually something they don’t like or need. Then we chose numbers, and whoever gets 1 goes first, picks a present and unwrap it. The second person can then pick a gift, or take the first person’s gift, causing the first person to pick another one. It goes on like this until all the people have picked all the gifts. It’s pretty fun and is amusing to see what kind of crap people can come up with. Add to that all the excellent food and drink we have, and you have a good time. It's nothing spectacular or anything, but it's better than staying home alone and depressed. Current Mood: lazy Current Music: no music, just watching "Pirates of the Caribbean" (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 28th, 2003
3:55 pm	I bow to King Aragorn... What I’m reading… I’m STILL trying to get through the aforementioned books. I have made a promise to myself not to check anymore books out of the library for myself until I finish the ones I have. I can report that I’m halfway through ‘The Dirty Girls’ Social Club’. Go me! What I’m listening to… well, I got a few CDs for Christmas, plus I’ve got quite a few from the library. I especially liked the ‘Daredevil’ Soundtrack and The Prayer Cycle (this one is a must-listen for any of you chant or mellow music lovers). What’s been going on… well, I had to work the day after Christmas, which was kind of a bummer. I had to be in an hour early, but that also meant I got to leave an hour early, which was wonderful. My friend Christine from college (the best roomie ever!) came to visit me this weekend, and we went and saw ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’. Let me just say how much I loved this movie AND how sad I am that the story has come to an end. They left a lot of stuff out of the movie that was in the book, but the movie was excellent and very satisfying. And may I mention how hott my boyfriend, Orlando Bloom, is? Well, I just did! Besides that, my poor doggie is feeling a bit under the weather… which translates to me dropping a few hundred at the vet’s office sometime this week. My dog is like my child, so I will max out all my credit cards on him if I have to, but he is damned expensive. I just hope the vet can make him feel better and alleviate my anxiety. I hate when he is hurt or sick because I don’t know what to do to make him feel better. :o( Current Mood: lonely Current Music: 'Daredevil' Soundtrack (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 25th, 2003
9:34 pm	Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! What I'm reading... well, I'm still reading everything I mentioned in my last blurty, but I've added a couple more books to that list: Jemima J by Jane Green and The Dewey Decimal System of Love by Josephine Carr. A friend recommended the first of the two and the latter was one I saw and took a look at purely because of the title. It's a book about a hott librarian in love, something I long to be. What I'm listening to... I haven't technically listened to it yet, but I received the new Dido cd for Christmas from my second mom, so I'll be listening to that. I'm still making my way through all the Matt Nathanson shows that Melanie copied for me, which is like getting a new gift each time I pop a new one into my cd player. I seriously love this man more and more with each show I hear. If you see a hott blonde driving around in a silver Honda Civic in the western Chitown suburbs with a huge grin on her face, it just might be me, listening to Matt shows. What's going on... uh, do you mean besides driving all over God's creation today, to visit 4 different homes for Christmas? Yeah, today was a long day, starting with a trip to my younger brother's house to open presents with him, his girlfriend, and their kids. Then I trekked over to my dad's to give him his gift, which he really liked, I think. Then I tried to stop at my Aunt Dee's, but she wasn't home. Finally, I drove over to my extended family (who's not really family at all, more like 'adopted' family) and did the gift exchange over there. I'm waiting for Mom to come home from Florida to open my gifts from her, but I think I'll cave between now and Monday and open at least a few. As for Christmas as a holiday/season/whatever, I like the holidays, I really do. I enjoy the happiness and cheer and all that, but I think everyone just gets too stressed out. My favorite part of Christmas is giving, and I really mean that. I love to see and hear people's reactions to what I got them. I love the feeling of knowing that I got them something they really wanted, even if they didn't know they really wanted it. That's one of the best feelings in the world, to me. That said, I'll be happy when the holidays are over and my life can resume its normal stressful pace, instead of this super-charged holiday stressful pace. And now, I close out this blurty, my second blurty and what is just the beginning of what I can see being an addiction, with a little Matt Nathanson... You're so glorious, a waste of time You're the safety in lying You are radiator heat, you're the winter blankets sleep You're the excuse that I use when I want to stop trying And start waiting for the sky to fall They tell me it's a cruel world that I've found It's a cruel world and I'm a lucky boy You're not gold to me I was wrong You're not gold and there'll be Centuries left when you're gone. - Matt Nathanson, "Lucky Boy" (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 21st, 2003
10:55 pm	My first blurty ever! So, I finally went and got myself a blurty, at the recommendation of Maria and Melanie. Holla to my internet peeps! I'm gonna go ahead and steal some ideas from various friend's online journals, so I hope they don't mind too much. What I'm reading... well, since I work at a library, I currently have about 15 books checked out! When will I have time to read all these? I have no idea. But, right now, I'm reading the following: The Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, The Series of Unfortunate Events: Book One: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket, A Cat of One's Own by Lydia Adamson, and Life is Not a Stress Rehearsal : Bringing Yesterday's Sane Wisdom Into Today's Insane World by Loretta Laroche. What I'm listening to... anything and everything by Matt Nathanson. Big thanks to Melanie for sending me a bunch of live Matt shows for Christmas! I've been listening to nothing but Matt in my car for the past month and a half. I'm seeing him for the first time in January, at the House of Blues in Chitown, along with Gavin Degraw. Um, could there be more hotness than Matt and Gavin in one night? I think not. What's been going on... wow, there's actually a lot. Let me first of say that I love Christmas but I will be so happy when it's over. I long for the times when I was a little kid and didn't have any responsibilities related to Christmas so I could just enjoy it. Now, there's all the presents to buy, the cards to send, the decorating to do, and the time and money to come up with for it all! Sometimes, being an adult sucks. Other than Christmas, I've been working my hot little buns off at the Franklin Park Library. Let me just say A) how thankful I am to have gotten this job, B) how much I like this job, and C) how nice it is to be employed full-time. It's also good to know that I'm putting my college education to use somewhat... so I didn't rack up all those thousands in college loans for nothing! Something fun I did today was go try on bride's maid dresses for my best friend's wedding. I didn't know what it would be like and was kind of leery about the whole process. That was until I went into girly mode and started wigging out at all the beautiful dresses. I found at least 3 that I loved... can't I just have them all? Now all I need is a sugar daddy to pay for it all and I'm set! And thus ends my first blurty ever. Whew! That wasn't so hard. Hopefully, I'll keep it updated semi-regularly. And now it's time for bed. Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: the "I Am Sam" soundtrack (2 Comments |Comment on this)